At a House Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) spoke to witnesses about President Trump's attempt to deport alleged TdA members.
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00:00Mr. Rory. I thank my colleague from California. Ms. Romero, you have testified about your
00:06experience in Aurora, Colorado. As we talked about at the beginning, I came to Aurora and
00:11visited with you and others that were impacted by what you were dealing with. To be clear,
00:16you felt terrorized in your home, in your apartment. Do you have an order, Mr. Chairman?
00:23If you have conversations, please take him off the dais. The gentleman's recognized.
00:29With all respect to my colleagues, and I noticed Ms. Romero, who was bothered by,
00:34you know, we're talking about people's lives, Americans' lives. Ms. Romero, your life.
00:39Yes or no, in short answer, was your life turned upside down by the existence of
00:43Tranda y Agua in your home, in your apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado?
00:48Absolutely, and continues to be.
00:51And people were in danger, American citizens, Americans were in danger.
00:54I was in danger. My family was in danger. I couldn't get my grandchildren to even
00:59come visit. It was dangerous over there. The police didn't want to respond.
01:04The local government in Aurora did not want to acknowledge. There was continued pushback
01:09and gaslighting.
01:11And I mentioned earlier, when I opened up this, the extent to which we had a young woman here
01:15who was testifying last year in this committee, Alexis Nugre, whose daughter, Jocelyn, was murdered
01:20at the hands of Tranda y Agua members in Houston, Texas. Is that acceptable?
01:24It's absolutely not acceptable.
01:27And so let me ask you this. Should TDA gang members or MS-13 gang members be removed and
01:35deported from the United States of America? Let me first ask Ms. Shaw, Professor Shaw, should
01:39they be removed?
01:42The president certainly has the authority to make that determination. The question is,
01:46how do we know who is a member of these bodies?
01:49So these members should be removed? These TDA gang members, MS-13 gang members who are
01:53posing a danger to the American people and citizens should be removed from the United
01:56States of America?
01:57I am a scholar. I'm not going to take a policy position on how immigration should be enforced
02:01or carried out.
02:02But you comment on these issues all the time.
02:03I opine on the law. And the president has certain authority, significant authority, to
02:08enforce the immigration laws, but the Constitution is supreme.
02:10The president has significant authority as the commander-in-chief to protect the United States?
02:14Of course.
02:15Ms. Romero, do you think these TDA gang members and MS-13 gang members and other dangerous
02:20individuals should be removed from the United States so they do not pose harm to American
02:23citizens?
02:24Every last one of them.
02:27And given that, do you believe it was appropriate for the president to remove those that were
02:33removed that Judge Boasberg decided to, from his perch, in the district court in the District
02:39of Columbia, stop or attempt to stop a plane leaving Harlingen, Texas to remove said individuals
02:47because this judge in D.C. decided to assert that he had jurisdiction over that plane that
02:53the commander-in-chief was using to remove these dangerous individuals from our country?
02:58Do you think the president was right or the judge was right?
03:01I think the president was absolutely right.
03:03If you can describe them as illegal and an immigrant to this country and a criminal all
03:09at the same time, they need to be go.
03:11They need to go out of our country.
03:13Much has been made of this individual from Maryland.
03:17To be clear, this is an individual that by all accounts was a member affiliated with MS-13,
03:22the dangerous thing in Maryland.
03:23I will not.
03:24This individual was affiliated with MS-13, had an order of removal against him, was here
03:29illegally in the United States of America, and was put on a plane, a separate plane, by
03:34the way, from the one under the alien enemy's removal, because he was on an order of removal.
03:40Now, the fact is, I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would like the
03:44American people to believe that it is more important for us to be concerned about the
03:49specific mechanics of an individual illegal alien affiliated with MS-13, endangering the
03:55American people, and whether or not the intricacies of due process about what claims that guy
04:00was making to alleged asylum, by the way, asylum because he was afraid of what might happen
04:06to him at the hands of the gangs he affiliated with, if he's sent back home to El Salvador,
04:12that that would somehow trump the extent to which Ms. Romero or Alexis Nungere would be
04:19the ones that are put down at the hands of dangerous gangs, making your life upside down
04:25as an American citizen.
04:26Do you think that's fair, Ms. Romero?
04:28It is not fair, and I have rights too.
04:31And we weren't asked permission to allow these unvetted criminals into our country, and nobody
04:36stopped them once we sounded the alarm.
04:38Something has to be done now.
04:40Mr. Speaker, thank you for being here.
04:44We've talked a little bit about what we might be able to do, and you talked about the fast
04:48track to the court and so forth.
04:50I remain of the belief, and I think we've passed legislation out here, and I think it'd
04:54be important to send that to the Senate.
04:56I agree with you to send a message to the Supreme Court.
04:58I would posit and see if you agree, I think we need to clarify for the record, for both sides
05:04of the aisle, in response to my friend from Colorado's commentary, that we had a wake-up
05:09call for our Democratic friends when suddenly there were some judges in the Northern District
05:13of Texas who were saying, wait a minute, we don't think some of these ridiculous rulings
05:17about men being in locker rooms with our girls in schools should somehow be okay because radical
05:23administrators under the Biden administration were allowing it to occur.
05:26Do you agree that having ability to say that you're not going to have a nationwide injunction
05:31at the hands of one judge, but then have a process by which you can have a nationwide
05:35injunction, either through a three-judge panel at the appellate or fast-track to the court,
05:39to clarify for the record, we're saying that's not a partisan exercise, that we're saying
05:43that no one judge should make that, that there should be a process, though, and there are times
05:48when a nationwide injunction does need to occur to stop administrators from making law.
05:52The gentleman's time has expired, but you may answer.
05:54Well, whether it is a liberal or a conservative, whether it's a Democrat or a Republican,
06:00the very concept of the distribution of power in the American system would indicate that no
06:05single person should have the power to dictate to the entire country what they personally happen
06:12to believe that week. And I think that we need to demystify the process of judgeship,
06:18recognize that it's occupied by humans. There's an amazing passage from Jefferson where he says,
06:24look, these are people. They're subject to exactly the same problems as politicians or anybody else,
06:29and you can't put them up on a pedestal. So you've got to have a system which blocks power
06:35from being exploited by the personality or the idiosyncrasies of one person imposing on 335 million
06:44people. And I think that what Chairman Issa has brought out is a very useful first step.
06:51As I said earlier, I think the Chief Justice could vitiate this entire issue if he took the right
06:57steps. But I think we as a people cannot allow random individuals arrogate to themselves being
07:05alternative presidents and imposing their personal will on the entire country.
07:09Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now you'll buy it.
07:10Thank you. The gentlelady from Vermont is recognized for five minutes.